Early Burley prices not encouraging

Selling Zimbabwe’s Burley crop for reasonable farmer prices is proving to be an uphill battle, according to a Zimbabwe Standard story.

Statistics from the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) showed that 55,499 kg had been sold by Friday, up 83 per cent on last year’s figures.

The value of the Burley sold by Friday amounted to US$82,201, a figure that was increased from the US$22,165 realised by the same stage of the 2012 sales.

On Friday, the highest price was US$2.50 per kg and the lowest price was US$0.50 per kg.

Some analysts fear that low prices are a deterrent to the growing of the crop but the TIMB CEO, Andrew Matibiri, said prices would firm during the course of the season.

“The majority of the crop is of low quality,” he said. “We expect that when farmers start reaping higher up, the prices will also rise,” he added.

This year, the TIMB projects an output of 300,000 kg, compared with last year’s 60,000 kg.

At its peak in 1998, Burley tobacco production reached 16 million kg.